Internet of things for smart agriculture: Technologies, practices and future direction

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) has shown a new direction of innovative research in agricultural domain. Being at nascent stage, IoT needs to be widely experimented so as to get widely applied in various agricultural applications. In this paper, I review various potential IoT applications, and the specific issues and challenges associated with IoT deployment for improved farming. To focus on the specific requirements the devices, and wireless communication technologies associated with IoT in agricultural and farming applications are analyzed comprehensively. Investigations are made on those sensor enabled IoT systems that provide intelligent and smart services towards smart agriculture. Various case studies are presented to explore the existing IoT based solutions performed by various organizations and individuals and categories according to their deployment parameters. Related difficulties in these solutions, while identifying the factors for improvement and future road map of work using the IoT are also highlighted.